How to Slam (aka Shout) Text Messages to Your Friends

iPhone required

Typically, you react to exciting text messages by replying with all the emojis. But when your BFF tells you she’s pregnant or engaged (or just had an awesome burrito), you’d like to give a bit more emphasis to your joy. Now, thanks to a cool new feature in iOS 10, you can.

What you do: The next time you’d like to react to a text, type what you want to say (“omg! omg! omg!”), then hold the send button for a few seconds. (FYI, it’s the blue arrow pointing up.)

What happens next: A list of bubble effects appears. Tap loud if you’d like to shout back an oversize reply or slam if you’d like your reaction to appear on her screen in a big dramatic burst. (You can also hit gentle to reply in teeny-tiny type or invisible ink if you’d like your note to disappear and reappear with a tap.)

One quick heads up: In order for this feature to work, you and the person you’re texting with have to be using iMessage (aka your texts appear on-screen in blue, not green). And, of course, you both have to have the update.